Sunday, January 3, 2010

Time is Free

Downtown Macon, Georgia was alive and well for New Year's Eve, and Mom and Shuga D were grateful they swooshed in from Atlanta and nested at the Hummingbird Stage and Taproom. For Mom, it was like a rewind and fast forward in time.

First the flashbacks. Col. Bruce Hampton and the Quark Alliance were center stage. Colonel classics like "Time is Free" and "Basically Frightened," and the man himself looked like he was at least a decade-and-a-half younger . . . Which made Mom rewind to being 16 at Elizabeth Reed's Music Hall (with her dad, of course), and helping Col. Bruce apply duct tape to his shoes and jeans "because it was going to get them on MTV." Good thing the duct tape took him even further.

Then the fast forward. The 'Bird was slammed packed. Bottles of champagne were graciously given out before the clock struck 12, and the music-loving-super-sect of folks were sharing, toasting and having just an overall mighty fine time. Mom couldn't help but fast forward into the new decade and just imagined the day when Macon didn't need a New Year's or free bottles of champagne to pack the house at key live music venues, like the Hummingbird, all of the time. Maybe, just maybe, we will get to the day - to quote the Rabbi - "when you haven't made it until you played Macon" . . . or at least been a part of the crowd singing along.

Thanks to the Hummingbird team for making it a memorable (and hopeful) night. Here's to a new decade of bringing us live music in Macon.

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Jessica Walden + Walden

Welcome to Macon Candy!

She's a media maven by trade, co-owner of a music history tour company on the side, host of radio show "Love Child of Rock" for fun, wife to a candy man by fate, Macon city-dweller since birth and mama to a toddler all the time.

Join Jessica Walden for musings and battle anthems of motherhood as she dives deep into the thoughts and threads of family life, feminism and the colorful fabric of her community.

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Rock + Candy: the Macon Music Story

He was born into a legacy of bon-bons, macaroons and the sweet life of candy manufacturing. She was raised in the shadows of rhythm and blues and after-shocks of southern rock. Together, they grew up in the town of Macon, Georgia that they never knew how much they loved until they fell in love with each other.

In 2011, Jessica Walden and Jamie Weatherford founded Rock Candy Tours, a music history tour company that showcases the legacy of Macon, Georgia’s rich music history. Once home to artists like Little Richard, Otis Redding, James Brown and the Allman Brothers Band, Macon was listed among legendary studio engineer Tom Dowd’s “Five M’s” of music towns, joined by Manhattan, Miami, Memphis and Muscle Shoals. They believe Macon’s storied music history doesn't have to live in a museum, but already existed on its sidewalks, street corners, historic structures and if the walls could talk, they would sing.